Posted by
Icarus on Monday, December 18, 2006 12:44:31 AM
Never let it be said that comic book publishers lack for material, as long as McCarthy and House Committee on Un-American Activities (inaccurately given the acronym HUAC - House Un-American Activities Committee - I guess HCUAA wasn't pithy enough) lurks in their collective conscience.
Wildstorm's recent release, titled "
Red Menace", is a comic book riff on themes most recently explored in the film "
Good Night and Good Luck". Once again we get the American government on a hatefilled, prejudiced and completely unnecessary search for Communists in America, this time among the superheroes of the 50s. This theme is being rehashed for its timeliness, I suppose. After all, aren't searches for terrorists that focus on Islamic radicals completely unwarranted? It isn't as if most terrorism worldwide has Islamic fundamentalism as its source. Is it? Today, standing in for the poor misunderstood Communists we have the poor misunderstood Michigan imams.
This 'timely' theme is also being explored in Marvel Comics reworking of the entire Marvel Universe with "
Civil War". I guess DC Comics didn't want to be left out in the cold when it came to equating American efforts fighting terrorism with the "paranoid" search for Communists during the Cold War.
"Red Menace" resurrects Leftists favorite boogy man, Joseph McCarthy and his, as they see it, completely unwarrented search for Communists in America.
"Los Angeles, 1953: Home to bent cops, smooth
criminals, and curvaceous starlets; where the glamour and wealth of
Hollywood and Beverly Hills collide with the crime and grit of
Chinatown. Amidst this startling contrast, American ideals are under
siege by Joseph McCarthy and the H.U.A.C. trials, rooting out communist
threats where ever they may lie — even in the ranks of the super
heroic! Can there be any doubt about the loyalties of L.A.'s greatest
and most patriotic hero, the Eagle? America is about to find out the
hard way!"
Any chance that some day we'd get something that gave us an interesting and original take on this period in modern America history? Maybe something inspired by Ronald Reagan's and
Roy Brewer's fight against very real Communists in Hollywood? Or maybe a something using
The Black Book of Communism as a source rather than Zinn's propagandistic hate-America "
People's History".